Great Barrier Reef!

Oh dear.

Oh dear, oh dear.

Not very many pictures today from the boat. I spent most of my time sat below deck studying the inside of several white bags.

It seems that 28knot winds on the rough ocean sea and my belly don't like each other.

It was an early start, checking in at 7:30 this morning for my cruise and snorkel over three different parts of the Great Barrier Reef. The lady who checked me in, whilst laughing, told me it was going to be a rough day.

I bought some travel sickness pills at $4! I want my money back!

The Silver Swift was a very good boat. The staff were fantastic all day and we had constant food & drink provided. I sat with an Aussie couple on hoilday from.... yup you guessed it... Melbourne! Very nice people! We laughed and joked and then we set off...

10 minutes in to the one hour ride to the outer reef and my stomach had gone.

After eating several ice cubes and having a cold cloth down my neck we finally arrived to our first site of the day.

In I went... snokelling away. I've chosen not to do the dive course whilst I'm out here as there is so much to see in this amazing country... I can dive for 4 days in Spain or Egypt if I want!

The water was an azure blue. The sun's rays twinkled in the crests of the ocean as the waves lapsed over the large segments of out cropping coral.

And there were fish. Schools of them everywhere! The reef shone in bright different colours and the number of creatures living in it was just overwhelming!

Before I knew it - the horn had been blown and we were to all climb aboard. Next stop coming up.

When we stopped again a few minutes later it was lunch time. I was pretty hungry now as my body was empty! Time to fill up!

After doing so, it was back in to one of this 'World's Greatest Wonders'. This time the coral was bigger and better. It created canyons that you had to swim between because it had grown that tall there wasn't enough water to swim over it. Just touching coral can kill it, several people tried to get too close and ended up cutting themselves! Serves them right!

The marine wildlife here was better than the previous spot... but little did I know that there was still better to come...

Our final stop of the day was at Tracy's Reef.

All I had done was lower myself from the back of the Swift. On the floor, 5 metres below me was a Turtle bashing away at the coral for food! Very well concealed and only recognisable because it was moving quite a bit. A wild turtle. I swam a bit closer to take a photograph. Unfortunately the camera I was using was very dark compared to the other two! You can just make him out on the photo if you look closely though.

Impressed by my sighting, I went off in search for some Stingrays and Sharks!

Whilst floating and casting a shadow on to the reef below, I managed to get a large clam to close itself up and squirt water out. It was an amazing display of such vibrant colours hidden under the sea.

I tilted my head to swim forward and stopped quickly as a school of fish came flying past the end of my nose.

How bizare...

30 seconds later, on the reef bed, dominating his way between the coral was a shark.

I took a picture from a far... but I wanted to be sure to get one and dived down - towards the tail of the shark (bearing in mind it was only about 150cm long) as it was swimming away.

The picture is good... but not as good as what I saw!

That was enough for me. In the last two days I've seen creatures that most people - outside of Oz - only see in a book or on TV. And they have been wild animals!

This trip couldn't have gotten any better....

Well it did!

I wasn't sick on the way back!


Though the back of my legs are a very bright pink... owch!



Trumpets!

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Part of trip: Down Under 09!

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